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| Nineteenth International Congress of Orientalists | |
|---|---|
| Name | Nineteenth International Congress of Orientalists |
| Genre | scholarly congress |
| Date | July 14–20, 1930 |
| Venue | University of London (Senate House) |
| Location | London, United Kingdom |
| Organiser | International Congress of Orientalists |
| Participants | scholars, linguists, archaeologists |
| Previous | Eighteenth International Congress of Orientalists |
| Next | Twentieth International Congress of Orientalists |
Nineteenth International Congress of Orientalists was a major scholarly meeting held in London in July 1930 that gathered specialists in Asian, African, and Near Eastern studies. The congress convened specialists from institutions such as the British Museum, the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge, and the School of Oriental Studies to present research on India, China, Japan, Persia, Egypt, and Mesopotamia. Delegates included representatives from the Royal Asiatic Society, the French School at Athens, the German Oriental Society, and the American Oriental Society, reflecting interwar networks linking scholars associated with the British Empire, the French Third Republic, the Weimar Republic, and the United States.
The congress was organized under the auspices of the International Congress of Orientalists, an association tracing origins to the 19th-century gatherings initiated by figures associated with the Society of Biblical Archaeology and the Royal Geographical Society. Planning involved committees drawn from the British Academy, the Institute of Archaeology, London, the School of Oriental and African Studies, and municipal authorities of London. Funding and patronage came from sources like the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Times press corps, and private benefactors with ties to the East India Company's late legacy and colonial administrations in Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras. Security, accommodations, and transport arrangements were coordinated with the London County Council and the Great Western Railway for visiting delegates arriving from Paris, Berlin, New York City, Tokyo, and Beijing.
The program featured plenary sessions, sectional meetings, and museum visits. Sections were organized around topical committees modeled on precedents set by the International Congress of Orientalists (1873) and covered philology, archaeology, epigraphy, numismatics, and art history. Sessions took place in halls associated with the University of London, the British Museum Reading Room, and the lecture theatres of King's College London. The schedule included joint panels with the Royal Society of Literature and the Société Asiatique, evening lectures by heads of the Egypt Exploration Society, and site reports from excavations at Oxyrhynchus, Nippur, Harappa, and Hattusa. Delegates attended receptions hosted by the British Museum Trustees and the Foreign Office.
Prominent presenters included epigraphists from the École française d'Extrême-Orient, philologists associated with the University of Leiden and the University of Halle, and archaeologists from the German Archaeological Institute and the American School of Oriental Research. Notable participants were scholars linked to the names of A. H. Sayce's successors, colleagues of John Garstang, associates of Sir William Mitchell Ramsay, and students of Sir Mortimer Wheeler. Papers addressed decipherment of cuneiform tablets from Nineveh, analyses of Sanskrit manuscripts from Sanskrit College, Calcutta, surveys of Tibetan manuscripts, catalogs of Buddhist reliquaries from Peshawar, and iconographic studies of Bamiyan sculptures. Delegates included representatives from the Tokyo Imperial University, the University of Chicago Oriental Institute, the Oriental Institute of Moscow University, and the University of Cairo.
The congress produced an official program booklet and a volume of proceedings edited by a committee drawn from the British Academy and the Royal Asiatic Society. Proceedings contained papers on comparative grammars, reports on fieldwork at Mohenjo-daro, catalog entries for collections at the Ashmolean Museum, and translations of inscriptions from Susa and Persepolis. Several papers were later reprinted in journals such as the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, the Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, and the Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft. The congress archives, including minutes, correspondence, and stenographic notes, were deposited with the School of Oriental and African Studies Library and copies circulated to the Bibliothèque nationale de France and the Vatican Library.
Contemporary press coverage in the Times, the Daily Telegraph, the New York Times, and the Le Figaro highlighted debates over access to archaeological sites in Iraq and Iran, the ethics of artifact acquisition at the British Museum and the Louvre, and the growing participation of scholars from India and Japan. Reports emphasized exchanges between proponents of different chronologies, including disputes involving specialists associated with the Oriental Institute (Chicago) and the Soviet Academy of Sciences. The congress influenced museum collecting policies at the British Museum and catalyzed collaborative agreements between the Egypt Exploration Fund and field missions linked to the Istanbul Archaeological Museums.
The London congress marked a turning point in interwar oriental studies by consolidating institutional networks spanning the British Empire, continental Europe, North America, and East Asia. It helped professionalize archaeological methodology through dissemination of stratigraphic reports from campaigns like those at Tell el-Amarna and Uruk, and it advanced philological standards exemplified by contributions from scholars associated with the Sanskrit Text Society and the Peking Oriental Society. Long-term legacies include strengthened cooperation among the Royal Asiatic Society, the École pratique des hautes études, and the University of Tokyo, as well as archival materials that later informed historiography of orientalism debated by critics referencing the work of Edward Said and contemporaries. The proceedings continue to be consulted in collections at the British Library and major university libraries worldwide.
Category:International Congress of Orientalists Category:1930 conferences Category:History of Oriental studies